Sunday, January 18, 2015

Vintage hysteria, high expectations and 2008 “L’Apôtre”

(David Léclapart)

“Blessed is
he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.”― Alexander Pope

I think we
have all been there, right? Expecting too much and ending up disappointed. With
a colleague, your company, your best friend, your spouse or maybe even a bottle
of wine. Expectations are the result of looking ahead, thinking solution
orientated and imagine (maybe even dreaming) of a happy end. When failure
arrives at our doorstep, we obviously ask ourselves why? Did we overlook
something? Or were unexpected variables responsible for the negative outcome
and can we actually blame someone other than ourselves?

Wine is
indeed exposed to high expectations and holds a complex field of variables,
which sets complex scenarios.

One of the
most expectation adding variables is vintage hyping. The declaring of a great
vintage will obviously raise the bar and expectations.

Vintage has
always been a key driver for wine lovers. If you get caught inside the wine
universe, you have also learned to pay attention to details. We constantly search for wines, which can
enlighten our sense hungry minds a little more than our last experience and
provide us with those unforgettable moments.

So we plan
well ahead to be in our comfort zone. We look for a bulletproof plan, by cherry
picking the best vintages and carefully (unless your are a billionaire) plan
our future wine purchases. Why shouldn’t we? Wine education tells you to be
selective; otherwise your finances will run dry

Paying
attention to vintage is logical – but also a blind alley and not a
guarantee. Especially because wine
journalists often compose the declaration of a vintage, which tends to follow a
framework, which might not take into account how you drink wine. I mean, how
many speak about the simple drinking pleasure and how food diverse the wine or
vintage may be? I couldn’t care less about +60 second finishes and only hearing
praise for vintages with the highest testosterone.

I find
myself split on vintage and high expectations. It really depends, how much I
pay attention to vintage. When I get my yearly allocation on producers like
Ganevat, Cossard or Cédric Bouchard, I don’t really care about the vintage. I
just buy them (if I can afford them), because I know they will have something
to offer. And what if it’s on paper not a great vintage? Maybe it will just
taste better young? Cellar the big vintage and drink the smaller vintages.
Great plan as I see it. I think there is almost nothing worse than seeing
tasters obviously disappointed with a wine in a “great vintage”, trying to
prove for themselves that the wine was still fantastic.

So even if
I find the whole vintage thing one big mass psychoses I would be lying to you
if I said that vintage didn’t matter to me and I never tried to find an alibi
for a wine, which didn’t live up to my expectations.

It actually
happened a couple of days ago.

2008 David
Léclapart “L’Apôtre”

Blend:
100% Chardonnay

Dosage:
0 g/l

Vines:
Planted in 1946

Vineyard:0,31ha
Lieu-dit “La Pierre St-Martin”

Fermentation:
Oak-barrels.

Other:
Biodynamic stuff

Glass:
Zalto White wine

Oh yes I
had high expectations. Why not? I have a thing with David and his wines and
there is always something in the air, when I taste his Champagnes.

I even tasted
the 2008 “in the “L’Apôtre” Vertical 1999 >>> 2009” back in Nov-2013
with David and was blown away by its intensity. It certainly lived up to the
hype about the 2008 vintage in Champagne. Vertical tasting are really
educational, as you can almost outline the younger wines path and imaging their
potential Sure, having tasted almost all releases of L’Apôtre from youth, I
knew there was a risk of it being simple too young. I even knew that L’Apôtre
would be slow starter.

Day one –
Friday. A leaf day btw - So not a good day to drink wine, according to the biodynamic lunar calendar. I think I have never tasted a Champagne this shy and 110%
completely closed. There was simply nothing to gain from the nose other than
the sense of something very clean. The taste had an insane acidity, which felt
like a thousand citrus fruits being crushed on your tongue. I would be lying,
if I said it was good. More a study than actually pleasure. If I had to
conclude something from this day I would have no idea what to write other than
I had too high expectations. Did I hype it too much or what had happened since
Nov-2013. I found myself making the same excuses that I somehow find rather pathetic;
when a taster just can’t get himself to say it’s not a good wine, but feverishly
try to argue their way out of the problem. My wife and I drank half of the
bottle and I decided to leave the other half for the next day, where I had the
entire half for myself.

Day two –
Saturday. A fruit day and even if I don’t have that great success with the
bio-calendar, I still found myself in this search for meaning (and still
hoping) over my Friday disappointment. Mama-Mia – WOW!!! I wouldn’t say that
the wine was actually open now and a flowering fruit bomb. But what revealed
itself was one hell of an insane electric Champagne, setting the bar for energy higher than I
have ever seen before. The aromatic notes are still very primary with tons of
ripe citrus tonality, soil intensity and this nerve wrecking acidity still cuts
all the way through the wine. With vintages like 2002 and 2004 “L’Apôtre”,
which has occasionally also shut down, especially shortly after release I would
obviously recommend seriously cellaring here. However “L’Apôtre” is known to
open up again before heading for a more mature window. When that is – I have no
clue. But damn – what a Champagne it will be, when it unfolds.